The Economics of Editing

When writers first start considering a professional edit, cost is usually a concern. Digging into the process, you will see a wide range of prices. Some editors offer a full-manuscript copyedit for the price of a nice dinner, while others cost the same as a big car repair. Why is the range so wide? Why is reading the manuscript worth potentially thousands of dollars?

Well, the first thing writers should understand is that an edit is not simply “reading the manuscript.” Editors will review your manuscript multiple times during a single round of edits. Depending on the type of edit, they are carefully reviewing every character, paragraph, and word. Editors routinely consult the style guide for your country and type of work to determine if something is correct or not, and if not, if it’s an area that allows leeway without distraction. They are considering how readers as a whole will interpret the scene and how genre expectations are or are not being met. They might be pulling up a map to see if the street in the real-world town you are using actually goes in the direction you discussed. I once had to figure out how far the average horse could walk in a day and then determine how many days the travelers would need to go from point A to point B. I used a real map and had to consider things like hills and streams. That was just to verify the timeframe the author mentioned in a sentence.

So, editing is not simply reading.

Next, if you are in the US, the EFA (Editing Freelance Association) has a site showing the average range of editorial rates per type of edit and type of writing based on data collected from their membership. It’s a great place to get an idea of what to expect.

As for the range, consider this. As I mentioned in the post How to Find an Editor, the US (and other countries) does not have a formal certification for any type of editing. An editor may get a certificate for a certain type of editing (I have several), but that is a way to demonstrate they’ve completed education on the topic. It is not the same as a certification from an organization that verifies the person has met knowledge standards.

The point is that there are people out there claiming to be editors who have no training at all in editing. They may not even have any education in the language (for example, an English degree). Unfortunately, there are people out there claiming they are editors, but when they get your manuscript, they will simply run it through software and then send it back to you. These types of “editors” tend to be extremely cheap compared to other editors, and for those writers who have real economic concerns, this type of person can certainly seem like a great deal. Until the manuscript comes back. As I discussed in the Software vs. Human Editor post, while software can be helpful, it can also completely miss the mark and even introduce more errors.

This is not to say all “cheap” editors are frauds. I know someone with solid experience who prices their services far below average. There are a lot of factors an editor considers when creating their rates. Some people edit full-time and must consider their own living expenses. Some editors only edit on occasion and for fun and don’t need the income to live. Some editors have a lot of experience and may even have specialty knowledge (for example, an editor with a degree in European history may be a great asset for a European historical fiction story; I have a wildlife degree and years of experience with birds of prey, and I think I’d be a great asset for stories featuring animals).

Many editors not only received a college degree or certificate in one or many types of editing, they also often take additional coursework through various editors’ organizations to stay on top of genre expectations, as refreshers, or to move into additional types of services. (I just finished a course on editing fantasy and

science fiction despite already editing those genres.) As with most people, many editors don’t feel their services and hours upon hours of their time should go for below minimum wage. Using the EFA average of 1,875 words per hour for copyediting fiction, consider a single round of copyediting for an 80,000-word manuscript could take about forty-three hours to do.

Then, of course, not every editor edits at the same speed. More experienced editors may be faster. Developmental edits are typically more expensive because they take longer. A light line edit won’t take as long as a heavy line edit.

Now, add a genre! A contemporary fiction story with a single point-of-view character in a single town will be faster to edit than a fantasy story in a new land with a magic system and five point-of-view characters.

In my last post, Sample Edits, I briefly mentioned that the state of the manuscript can influence price as well. If you’ve had the opportunity to check out my own pricing, you may have noticed I say the rate “starts at” a certain price per word. This is a minimum (unless there are other factors). If a manuscript comes in and needs a heavy edit, this will take longer. I do not charge by the hour (some editors do), but I and others do take into consideration how much work/time will be needed given the quality of manuscript we receive (helpfully determined during the sample edit) to create a project rate. This is one of the reasons I say writers should always revise and self-edit! Get those alpha and beta readers in. Clean your story up to the best of your ability before handing it off to an editor! You’ll likely save some money. Leave the things you don’t already know to editors. No one expects you to know all the style guide rules. But you can check to make sure your characters’ names don’t change midway through the story, or your plot doesn’t fall off completely and disappear.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider for editing rates. And editors are aware that their rates may not always work for everyone. That’s understandable! Some offer flexibility in payments, while others are steadfast. Some editors have so much work they need not consider discounts for recommendations, while other editors are building their portfolios and starting with a reduced rate.

Just as there are a lot of factors for rates, there are many elements for the writer to factor in when considering if they should hire a professional editor and for what type of edit. You must consider which publishing route you want to take, your financial situation, your experience level and support system, and the quality of product you wish to offer to readers.

What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else. You, as the writer, can decide what and who works for you and your story. Shop around. Consider what is important to you.